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Riverbank Native Takes Fire Chief Position

New Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Chief Mike Whorton celebrates with his family immediately after his swearing in at the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District board meeting in February. From left are daughter Kailee, wife Korie, Whorton, and daughter Kendra.

Stanislaus
Consolidated Fire Protection District (SCFPD) has had a few new fire chiefs over
the past few years and newly appointed Fire Chief Mike Whorton plans on making
his position permanent with a solid plan to make the department healthy again.

The
Riverbank native and longtime resident graduated from Riverbank High School in
1986 and started in the fire department as a volunteer in 1987. He has remained
in the community and also manages a business in downtown.

“I
planned on going to school to be a chiropractor,” said Whorton. “A buddy of
mine was a volunteer here and his dad was a paid fireman. I grew up with them.
They needed volunteers at the station so he called me and asked me if I wanted
to be a volunteer firefighter while I was going to school.”

During
that time there were two fire stations in Riverbank, a volunteer station on
Topeka Street and paid staff station on Claribel Road. An opening for the paid
staff became available so he applied for it and got the position. This forced a
decision that he had to make whether to continue his schooling to become a
chiropractor or to pursue firefighting. Clearly the decision was to remain in
the fire service, leading him to the opportunity of becoming the Fire Chief of
SCFPD.

Whorton
explained that in 1995 the Claribel Road station was sold so the Topeka station
became the paid station.

“What
kept me here was knowing that I was helping the community,” stated Whorton. “I
enjoyed the different types of calls that we had here. I didn’t like some of
the calls I had to go on that were friends and family. I had to deal with that.
That was probably the hardest part. I grew up in Riverbank and it was small at
that time. So I pretty much knew everybody. My family was from here and stuff
so responding to calls of people that I knew and knowing that we did everything
we could for that person but it just didn’t work out.”

Although
those types of calls made it challenging at times for him to continue being a
firefighter, he pushed through it and has served the community for over 30
years.

“Starting
out at the bottom you look up and all the older guys were always getting all
the holidays off and you are the young guy having to work all the holidays,”
said Whorton. “And you are like, I will never get there but time went by fast
and I was at that position. And look now there are young guys having to work
the holidays when I have them off and I tell them you will be here one day and it
will go by fast.”

With
positive feedback and encouragement from Dan Reeves who was the fire chief that
hired him to pursue the fire chief position and continue his education that
gave him hope that one day he may be a fire chief. That dream came true when he
was sworn in at the station on Topeka on Feb. 14 at the regular SCFPD meeting.

Daughters
Kendra and Kailee pinned the badge on their father during the ceremony and
there was a brief “welcome reception.” His wife Korie was in the audience and
District Board President Susan Zanker swore him in.

“I
still think it is not real,” expressed Whorton. “I have seen a lot of chiefs up
there and I respected a lot of them and now I am here. I still don’t know what
to think. There is so much work that needs to be done. A lot of relationships
that need to be rebuilt that were tore up. The communication was terrible. That
is one of my goals is communication between the other departments that we have
contracts with, our neighboring agencies and especially with our employees.
Communication needs to be built back between all of us. We need to work
together and become a team again.”

The
nine stations within the SCFPD provide fire and emergency medical services to
over 500 square miles in the Eastern part of Stanislaus County. SCFPD was
formed in 1995 after four small districts united. The SCFPD service area
includes unincorporated sections of East Modesto, the communities of Riverbank,
Waterford, Empire, La Grange, and Hickman and in September 2014 they provided
fire protection services to the City of Oakdale and the Oakdale Fire Protection
District became contracted agencies which include the communities of Valley
Home and Knights Ferry.